Tag Archives: refugees

Just Like Me

bible, community, faith, God, hope, justice, Lectionary, life, love, Rants and Ramblings, Religion, theology, , , , ,

We’re all made by God.
The rich,
the poor
are all the same
fundamentally,
under their surroundings,
if we aren’t taken in
by looks,
or our standards,
or the rhetoric
of those
who don’t care for
the “other”.

We all have the same needs
love,
nourishment,
safety,
a place to call home.

So why
do we think
we can be down
on those
whose life circumstances
have not been as ours?
Walk by them,
ignore them,
hurl abuse at them,
or question their rights?

Have we walked in their shoes?
Lived with what they have lived with?
Then we have no right
to pontificate

and every duty to help.

‘These people’*
as we are so keen to call them,
to keep them separate,
not like me
are actually just like me
and could be me,
or any one of my loved ones,
should life take one
slightly different turn.

And so I am called
to reach out,
to share,
to treat justly,
to love,
to bring hope.

Because I should treat them
as I would want God
to treat me.

* ‘These people’ are humans, with stories, lives, loves, fears.  They are people running from atrocity, from home lives we couldn’t imagine, from situations we have been a part of making.  They are people for whom risking life and limb is a better choice than where they are, where living on the street is better than any place they may have been living, where leaving their country is safer than staying there, where their life cirumstances have made them what they are and not the other way round. These are people, real people.  People just like you and me.
We should be ashamed if we treat them with anything other than respect and love, and don’t do all we can to bring them hope – that is what God requires of us.

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 (CEV)

The Value of a Good Reputation

22 A good reputation and respect
    are worth much more
    than silver and gold.
2 The rich and the poor
are all created
    by the Lord.

 

8 Troublemakers get in trouble,
    and their terrible anger
    will get them nowhere.

9 The Lord blesses everyone
    who freely gives food
    to the poor.

 

22 Don’t take advantage
of the poor
    or cheat them in court.
23 The Lord is their defender,
    and what you do to them,
    he will do to you.